DESCRIPTION:
The C-141 StarLifter was originally designed to meet a US Air Force requirement for a large troop-carrying
aircraft with global range. To meet this need, the C-141 could transport up to 154 troops or 123
paratroopers over distances of nearly 3,000 miles. The C-141 was the world's first military transport
powered by turbofan engines. The design also featured a high mounted wing to maximize cargo space as well
as clamshell doors at the rear fuselage for loading and unloading.

Shortly after entering service in 1964, the new C-141 fleet soon proved its usefulness during the conflict
in Vietnam. However, the Air Force quickly realized that the C-141 was capable of carrying much greater
loads than could physically fit within the aircraft. Lockheed was then contracted to convert some 270
aircraft to the C-141B standard with a fuselage extension and in-flight refueling capability. About 68 of
these aircraft were later upgraded with glass cockpit displays and designated as the C-141C.

The final years of service for the C-141 proved to be some of the most active for the aircraft, and the
StarLifter remained an important component of the US Air Force's transport fleet through 2005. From 2002
until the aircraft's final combat mission in September 2005, the C-141 completed over 2,000 combat sorties
and transported more than 70 million pounds of equipment and materials in the Middle East. The C-141 also
flew over 70 percent of the aeromedical evacuation flights from the Middle East and Iraq.

The final C-141 was retired in May 2006 to go on display at the National Museum of the United States Air
Force in Dayton, Ohio. This aircraft, named Hanoi Taxi, had flown the first mission of Operation
Homecoming in 1973 to return American prisoners of War from North Vietnam to the US.

As the remaining C-141 fleet was retired during the late 1990s and early 2000s, the aircraft was replaced
by the C-17 Globemaster III.

Data below for C-141BLast modified 15 April 2011

HISTORY:

First Flight

(YC-141A) 17 December 1963
(YC-141B) 24 March 1977

Service Entry

(C-141A) 19 October 1964
(C-141B) December 1979
(C-141C) October 1997

Retirement

(C-141C) 6 May 2006

CREW:

five or six: pilot, co-pilot, two flight engineers, loadmaster (plus navigator for airdrops)
aeromedical evacuation crew typically includes two flight nurses and three medical technicians